Qutb-i 'Alam Bukhari Roza

Ahmedabad, India

The roza or funerary complex known as Qutb-i 'Alam is located in Vatva, a suburb of Ahmedabad approximately six miles southeast of the old city center. The complex, which includes a mosque and two tombs, marks the burial of the Sufi shaykh Qutb-i 'Alam Bukhari, also known as Sayyid Burhan al-Din, who died in 1452/856 AH.

One enters the complex from the main road through a large and ornate gateway on its western side. The gatehouse is a two-story structure with a large central archway surmounted by a gallery with three balconies. This structure is flanked on right and left by slightly shorter two-story wings with galleries opening via arcades of three arches on both stories.

The complex's mosque is situated to the north of the gate. It is a rectangular hypostyle hall measuring 92 feet by 38 feet deep, whose pillars support three large domes in the center and four smaller domes toward the back and front of the roof. Three of the mosque's walls are solid on its north, south, and west (qibla) sides. Its eastern side is open and six groups of two pillars divide its facade. On the qibla wall, three mihrabs along the qibla (west) wall are aligned with the dome spaces. An inscription dates the mosque to the year 1469/874 AH.

Immediately east of the masjid is an ablution tank and, just south of it, the smaller of the two tombs. This tomb consists of a central domed space supported by 12 columns forming a square. Surrounding the domed square are two ambulatories separated by twenty columns forming a square and bounded by an outer set of twenty-eight columns.

To the east of the tank and small tomb is the much larger and grander tomb of Qutb-i Alam himself. It consists of a central domed space supported by twelve pillars forming a square. The domed space rises two stories high, and the second story is open to the roof through archways, three per side of the square. Surrounding the domed square on the first story is a broad ambulatory formed by the inner square of twelve pillars and a double row of pillars on the outside. The bays between the pillars of the ambulatory are arched.

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